


We Have Always Been Inevitable

by Eternalxblossom



Category: One Tree Hill
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-04
Updated: 2019-03-04
Packaged: 2019-11-12 01:56:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18001592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eternalxblossom/pseuds/Eternalxblossom
Summary: He was then - and he always would be - in love with Peyton Sawyer. It was his fate. And this time he wasn't going to put up a fight anymore." Leyton. Alternates Lucas/Peyton POV.Just a little something I wrote for OTH's anniversary. Also, I'll always have a soft spot for these two.





	1. Chapter 1

Lucas Scott was no stranger to fighting against fate. He thought of himself as the master of his fate, the captain of his soul – he put up a lot of resistance and bravely fought back when he found out he had HCM, he rejected, fought and rebelled against the things he couldn't explain or control for as long as he can remember. The one thing he never could quite piece together was what could possibly propel someone to do such a horrendous act like kill his own flesh and bones out of revenge, look them in the eye and pull the trigger – a man he could never call his father, Dan Scott, had done the inexplicable, ruining everybody's lives in the process beyond repair. He couldn't accept that his fate was to live without an uncle and be the son of the man who took his life. He couldn't accept many things and often resorted to denial as a shield.

But if it was anything Lucas Scott couldn't do, it was fighting against his heart. He could try to - many times - he could lie to himself, delude himself to believe that his heart could ever beat as strongly and as certainly for someone else other than the curly-haired blonde made of sarcasm and wrapped from head to toe in issues, the girl who had haunted his dreams since early childhood. But in a remote corner of his mind, he always knew he was fighting a losing battle. He couldn't let himself believe it just yet, because it would hurt too much.

He still remembered everything vividly - how he abandoned that love because of circumstances, poor timing and potentially devastating consequences on a lifelong friendship he should've never gotten in between. Instead, he settled for mending his broken heart using the person whose heart he would be breaking too – again – despite his wishes. Brooke Davis deserved more than him. Brooke Davis deserved the truth - one he never could give to her - not to the degree he wanted. He was a man of words - he could give her beautiful speeches and a fairytale, movie romance - but he couldn't give her that one piece of his heart that would always belong to someone else, irrespective of his will.

He loved both Brooke Davis and Peyton Sawyer so much, but in vastly different ways. At one point he deluded himself that it was the exact same way - the same pure, unadulterated, blossoming love, just separated by time and circumstance once more. But it wasn't the same. It couldn't be. And it took unraveling his fragile heart again to finally let himself see it, let himself realize that he hadn't been whole since Peyton had walked out on him that fateful night, leaving him to ponder and hurt on his porch in the evening air, as she hid her teary eyes, took shaken steps ahead and wrapped her leather jacket tighter around herself, not daring to look back, knowing that what she might see could make her reconsider and shatter her resolve right there.

Being with Peyton and hiding behind Brooke's back had been wrong. He should've never jumped in the welcoming arms of the brunette just to attempt to put himself back together in the first place. She couldn't fix him. But it was his defense – he used other women when he couldn't admit the truth about the one - the only one - who ever had the power to break his already fragile self. The hold Peyton had on his heart was so undeniably, painfully real. It was the one fact he couldn't dismiss, try as he might.

But everything about him and Peyton had been a series of poor timing and missed chances from the very beginning. He had thought there was nothing to return to and that spark present between them at one point had long since vanished into thin air, that their feelings weren't quite as strong as he thought, that it had been nothing but a teenage fling.

So when Peyton uttered that single sentence after that banquet, he froze:

" _I've been holding this in for a really long time and I just need you to know. I love you. I'm in love with you."_

That should've been a catalyst for him, an earth-shattering realization, the sentence that compelled him to reconsider all of his choices - all the romantic speeches directed at Brooke when they should've been uttered to the guarded, curly-haired blonde instead, all the times he saw Peyton and Jake together and he watched instead of saying something, anything, all the while constantly lying to himself in an attempt to deny how he truly felt - like looking into a mirror, his past image staring back at him – he could've been _that_ man for her all along. Instead, he cheated, breaking the hearts of two girls who didn't deserve it. He became the opposite of who he was meant to be.

Faced with that staggering truth, he could only utter a soft _"Oh.."_ , knowing that it wasn't what she wanted to hear, what she deserved to hear. He was astounded and no matter how much he wanted to, he couldn't say anything else. It took Skills pulling him from his endless denial and reminding him that he chose to be there for Peyton through everything – saving her from psycho Derek, going back in that school to make sure she was safe – to let himself remember that it meant something. That _they_ meant something. That _they_ never stopped, that maybe, just maybe, those old feelings never went away.

And in that sea of falling confetti and muffled voices ringing in the distance, it was the sound of his own heart beating faster than ever that resonated louder than any instinct to the contrary – it was Peyton. She was the one he wanted next to him when his dreams came true and she was the one he still wanted there when they didn't. Peyton, the one it wasn't easy to be with but the one he was finally willing to fight for, the one he connected with like no other, the one whose beauty, art and passion had changed his life in more ways than one, that fragile, guarded girl who only let him in past all of her defenses, who only allowed him to save her in her darkest hours. Tortured artist and tortured athlete – but it was more than that. _They_ were more than that.

They had always been inevitable and God only knows how hard they fought against it. They had tried to run away from each other, they kept that push and pull game, they even convinced themselves that the flame between them had diminished the moment the initial euphoria vanished and they realized how wrong being with each other was if it happened behind Brooke's back. They put her first instead and decided to finally do the right thing, even though it still backfired horribly, crashing down on them both. It had to be done.

They let themselves heal after the unintended breaking of three hearts that day and allowed themselves to try and forget that love, that rush, that feeling – so real it was so incredibly frightening.

But in that moment, as the confetti fell upon them, he felt like the first time he laid eyes on Peyton all over again, when he was nothing but a scared little boy trying to make sense of the messed-up, irrational, unfair world around him. And when their lips met, he saw the rest of his life – he saw everything he could've possibly wanted. He finally let himself believe in fate again and not fight against it but actually understand how mysterious its ways were. Because there was nothing else that could explain them finally reaching this point, against all odds, when no one else - not even themselves - would've given them a second chance. Despite being a man of carefully-crafted words, he never let himself believe in the power of destiny as being the one that shaped the journey of the characters in the fictional universes he often loved to let himself get lost in. But it was then that he was finally a believer - fate happened outside of literature too. At least it did to him.

They have always been inevitable. Star-crossed lovers. Soulmates. They were bound to share a connection that was theirs and theirs alone all along. He was then - and he always would be - in love with Peyton Sawyer. It was his fate. And this time he wasn't going to put up a fight anymore. He was going to embrace it. Because it was his truth, his hope in a world not quite as poetic and beautiful as the books he loved to read painted. It was his reason to believe again. And he was never going to let go of it.


	2. Chapter 2

Peyton Sawyer had always been a victim of fate. The last thing she wanted was to take that role, to view herself as the victim of an unstoppable force, above her power to control, that somehow dictates her journey in life. But faced with more tragedy than grown-ups experience in a lifetime while she was still nothing but a fragile teenager in dire need of stability and care, she had come to believe that she was the reason why all of these bad things kept happening to her, that she was the one driving people away, that she was fated to be alone – her adoptive mother died running a red light to pick her up from school, her biological mother died of cancer, her adoptive father was barely around, despite loving her dearly, someone posing as her brother nearly killed her while her real brother was also away, serving a greater purpose than being her relative.

She couldn't hold it against them for leaving – they all had good reasons. She understood that. Her only constant had been Brooke, her best-friend, the one who was there for her through thick and thin. But she had endangered that relationship too and nearly tore it apart without ever meaning to, all because of one boy. They agreed not to allow any boy to come between them – _"Hoes over bros"_ as they so eloquently liked to put it, but Lucas Scott had always been more than just a meaningless boy. He had always been inevitable to her, regardless of how stubborn she was and how many times she tried to put up a fight. But she couldn't fight against herself forever. It was a losing battle and her attempts were bound to end in failure.

Because of the harsh life she's led, because of events that happened against her wishes, consequently marking her and shaping her personality growing up, Peyton had built strong walls meant to protect her from the world outside, so strong that not many people bothered to walk through or even attempt to break them down. She was seen as this cynical, sarcastic, depressing, broody girl, often accompanied by her polar opposite – the bubbly Brooke Davis. They had always been polar opposites but that didn't stop them from growing close.

Peyton liked to describe herself as a "riddle wrapped in a mystery inside a bitch." But she was more than that. And up until she nearly ran over a blonde, pale boy wearing his trademark oversized grey hoodie, she thought she had forgotten that. She had allowed herself to nearly forget that she could be more, that she deserved more and she was entitled to ask for more.

He took her entire world by storm, he let himself into her guarded heart without notice and then followed disaster. Because it was bound to happen to every person she loved. Lucas Scott made her break all the rules, including girl code. If there's something she'll never forgive herself for is breaking her best friend's heart while she stole fugitive, passionate moments with the blue-eyed boy, getting more than just a rush for doing the wrong thing. It wasn't just guilt. It was unadulterated love, so strong it frightened her to bits and her first impulse was to reject it for the sake of her best friend, once reason kicked in again. Brooke should have never suffered because of them, she was nothing but an innocent victim of two people who were inevitable to each other but too stubborn to admit it.

So stubborn, actually, that she threw herself in the arms of someone else – Jake – a boy she thought she could even love forever, a boy she envisioned herself marrying and settling down with, while Lucas chose the easy way out – being with Brooke was easy. She wasn't wrapped from head to toe in issues much like herself, she could give Lucas a lot of what she couldn't. That realization stung but there was nothing she could do about it but move on. And she thought she had, until the unexpected happened – a truth she had denied the existence of was uttered in her sleep, at the worst possible moment, breaking another innocent heart in the process – _"I love you, Lucas."_

It was a truth she had spent months burying and hoping she could erase. But she couldn't. Because that realization reminded her of all the times Lucas went out of his way to save her – the girl it wasn't easy to be with, the one who was too complicated and moody and messed up, but the one who could love him with every fiber of her being if he allowed her to. She was reminded of Lucas going back into that school, risking his life, hiding with her in that library – because if something were to happen to them, at least she wouldn't die alone, which was one of her darkest fears – he'd be there. He always has been. He protected her from psycho Derek. He was her savior – in more ways than one. And she tried to lie to herself over and over again that she didn't want him to assume that role in her life, but she did.

She needed someone to reassure her that everything would work out, even in the darkest times when she lost all hope. She needed someone who wouldn't leave, because people always did. She needed someone who would hold onto her when she was crumbling under the weight of everything she's lost because of a fate much too cruel and circumstances beyond her power to control or alter, both of which she didn't deserve.

And when she finally poured her heart out to the only boy who she ever let all the way in past all of her defenses, she was crushed when all he had to give to her was an astounded _"Oh.."_ She instantly berated herself for opening up to someone again, when most past instances pointed to that being a bad idea. She would've given anything to hear him say that she was the _one_ person he wanted next to him when his dreams came true, that he could see a future for the two of them where they could get a clean slate, without hurting anyone else, without hurting Brooke again.

She had nearly given up on that dream. But after hugging and congratulating him after the state championship in that wild roar of the crowd, ready to walk away, forget and take back whatever crazy thing she said the night before _– "I love you, I'm in love with you",_ she didn't expect a calm, soothing voice she could recognize out of a thousand, even in that deafening noise, calling her back. She didn't expect him to tell her everything she's dreamed of hearing. She didn't expect them to get a second chance to make things right ever again.

And when he kissed her, she finally knew – people always leave, but sometimes they come back, sometimes they stay. Sometimes fate isn't merciless, but works in mysterious ways, bringing together two people who were bound to be with each other, who shared a connection no one else could comprehend, two people who deserved to be together. When she kissed him, she finally understood that, no matter what life had to throw at her, it would get easier because she had someone to face that darkness with, someone to help her through, because that's what love was – two souls facing it all together. And after craving it for years without realizing just how much, she finally understood - love was all that mattered.


End file.
